Developed Dimensions
by silversliced-rain
Summary: Soundwave stuck in the Shadowzone with no way out finds a safe place to put himself in stasis lock to conserve fuel. The world he wakes in is drastically different from the one he went to sleep in. AU.
1. Prologue

I stood on a lone, deserted butte staring at the discolored, shifting sands far below me, my processor thinking over the last few solar-cycles. It all started when the Autobots boarded the Nemesis. No, it was a chain of events that was kicked of by me getting captured. Prime shot me out of the sky and temporarily overloaded my systems with electricity, when I woke all of my limbs were restrained much to my frustration. The oh so _'mighty'_ Prime questioned me about Lord Megatron's plans, (as if I was the coward that is Starscream) and thus I mocked them. Which lead to me deleting all the data on my drives after the Autobot medic, Ratchet, threatened to forcibly gain access to said drives. Upon mocking the group one last time, I placed myself stasis by crashing my drives.

Lazerbeak arrived and disabled my bonds and brought me back online, in the process transferring an objective, capturing Ratchet. Thankfully, most of the Autobots had left leaving me with three guards, one of their Wreckers, their rookie, and their medic. I had little challenge incapacitating both the Wrecker and the rookie, actions that allowed me to capture their medic. The capture of their medic proved to be a boon, as it allowed us access to a large portion of the formula that made up Synthetic Energon, which was needed to make cyber-matter.

Once Ratchet had completed the task we had set for him, he was handed over to Predaking. During the time he was the Predacon's prisoner he managed to reveal and convince the mech of Lord Megatron's treachery. This lead to the beast attacking Megatron and thus getting himself expelled from the ship. This lead to Ratchet being able to come assist his team by stopping Shockwave from firing the Omega Lock.

All of this lead to the Nemesis getting boarded by the Autobots. During this time, I was trapped in this Shadowzone by the Autobot's human pets, and my master was stabbed by the same scout he had tried to kill so long ago. I tried to catch my master as he fell but failed, because I was a what the humans called a ghost.

I watched as Lord Megatron was revived as a mere puppet of Unicron, and I followed him to Cybertron. I watched as he turned the ancient corpses of the once mighty Predacons into Terrorcons. I watched as Unicron's presence was terminated from my master's mind, and I heard him admit the defeat of the Decepticons. He then placed himself in exile and left Cybertron.

I returned to Earth with Ratchet, contemplating my next course of action. I was jolted out of my thoughts as I heard Lazerbeak's warbling. Lifting my helm I turned to face my incoming symbiote, with a quick series of chirps Lazerbeak clicks into place on my chest. Feeling files begin to download, I stared into the sky as I processed the data. Lazerbeak had been Ing mapping the surrounding terrain in search of a cave system.

As always my ever faithful symbiote had found a large cave system which would be perfect for my purposes. I had limited options in what course of action to take, and a limited fuel supply. Because realistically, I severely doubt the Autobots would assist one of their greatest enemies. So I made to decision to find a safe place to bunker down and place myself and Lazerbeak into stasis lock.

So turning to face the north western sky I flipped into the air and transformed. My destination was only a ten minute flight away after all.

{-}

I gracefully transformed and fell about three mechanometers, slamming into the ground in front of the entrance to the cave. With careful steps I slipped inside the yawning hole in the ground.

The entrance was large and quickly narrowed as the floor gently sloped downwards. Eventually the hall widened out again into a large cavern that had paths leading of to the left and right. After deploying Lazerbeak to investigate the left tunnel, I headed right.

Stepping into the right tunnel I employed the use of echolocation. After the sound returned I was able to create an accurate three dimensional map of the tunnel. It was straight and slowly narrowed into a flat wall about, twenty-five mechanometers back. With this tunnel a dead end I turned on my heel and headed towards the other side of the cavern.

As I reached the opening of the left tunnel, Lazerbeak, reappeared and reattached herself to my chassis. It seemed this side had more use as it wound down into the earth. The path sloped downwards at a steep angle and had a gentle curve. Lazerbeak noted a large cavern at the bottom, so I stalked down the corridor.

Once I reached the bottom I sent out another echolocation pulse. When it returned I constructed the model in my processor, the cavern was large as Lazerbeak had said, and up in the corner was a small ledge perfectly sized for my alt-mode. Long quick strides carried me over and a multitude of scans assured me of the structural soundness of the ledge.

This ledge was a perfect spot to go into stasis, only open in the front, and all three walls were extremely thick and were unlikely to collapse. Thus, there was a minute chance the would ceiling collapsing on me, and injuring or killing me.

So I marched towards the caverns entrance to gain as much maneuvering room as possible. Reaching the entrance I smoothly transformed and flew towards the ledge lining myself up with its mouth. As expected I landed perfectly, and with a sigh I began to shut down my systems one by one.

Lazerbeak was the last thing to be shut down, and as I sat in the silence of the Shadowzone I wandered briefly about the future. But, one day we would be woken and with that thought I entered the final necessary stasis codes. My HUD asked for a confirmation which was delivered and a countdown promptly started.

Soon my world faded to black, I was a peace Lazerbeak was safe as was I, and that was all that mattered.

{-}

Soundwave would not wake for an eternity. As the Spymaster slept the Shadowzone slowly developed into its own dimension. Primus and Unicron fought, and the First Thirteen Primes were created. Cybertron developed, and soon Megatron rose as the High Lord Protector. Not long after Megatron went insane and attempted to seize power for himself, founding the Decepticons.

Megatron left Cybertron in search of the Allspark and crashed on Earth, and still Soundwave slept nestled on his ledge deep underground.

But soon Soundwave would wake and change how many beings understood the universe.

{-}

 **Disclaimer**

 **I do not own Transformers**

 **Time measurements**

 **Nanoclick = a second**

 **Cycle = 1.5 minutes**

 **Mega-cycle = 2.6 hours**

 **Solar-cycle = one day**

 **Deca-cycle = ten days**

 **Orbital-cycle = one month**

 **Stellar-cycle = one year**

 **Distance measurements**

 **Mechanometer = one meter**

 **Hic = one kilometer**


	2. Discoveries and Mornings

**Review** **responses**

 **Guest- The first movie and the events leading up to it happened unaltered. During this time Soundwave was still hidden in the cave, at that point he couldn't alter anything, however once he's woken up, that's when things start to change. As for the other movies, I have a plan in the works, but we'll see how it pans out. This is an AU after all.**

{-}

Thomas Selco sat placidly in his office sipping from a thermos of tea as he looked over progress and equipment reports. This particular dig was a bid for gold, as surveyors reported a possible pocket that would more than pay for itself. With a shake of his head the foreman pulled out order forms for various pieces of equipment that would soon need to be replaced.

Unknown to Thomas buried beneath his feet was something that would eventually change the world as he knew it. Beneath his feet, Soundwave and Lazerbeak rested, waiting for someone to wake them.

{-}

William Lennox was startled awake by the screech of his alarm clock. After identifying the sound the Ranger groaned and whacked the snooze button before curling back up. Not thirty seconds later Ironhide's ringtone came from his phone, this lead to a hand flailing about the nightstand till the offending device was found and silenced. Will, content nothing else would bother him settled back in, only for thee to be a light tapping at the window. The Ranger sat up with a wordless snarl and glared out the window at the large black robot. Said robot smirked and tapped his finger against the glass once more, infuriated the man rolled out of bed and stormed over to the window.

"What do you want, Ironhide?" Will snapped after he had opened the window.

"Your alarm clock went off, also we're going to be late if you don't get ready." Ironhide stated flatly.

"Oh it is not _that_ late." Will argued as he turned to check the clock and promptly froze panic spreading across his face, With a yelp the man was scrambling towards the bathroom.

"I told you!" Ironhide called after his charge with a chuckle.

"Shut up!" Was the ever eloquent response.

{-}

Twenty minutes later the pair was flying down the road towards the base. Will sat in the drivers seat pretending to drive but still grumbling at Ironhide under his breath. Ironhide was chuckling at Will's irritation as he drove, completely unconcerned with the glare being directed at his dashboard. He did take note when the Ranger suddenly stopped grumbling and started to smirk.

 _'Oh Primus, that is not a good look. I'm going be pranked aren't I.'_ The Topkick thought with a minor degree of hysteria. His paranoia increased when Will started to cackle.

"Will, what are you planning?" Ironhide asked slowly trying to hide his nervousness.

"Me, I'm not planning anything." Will gently tried to assure the mech with a pat on the dashboard.

"Oh no, you're planning something, pranking is _always_ proceeded by cackling."

"I have _no_ idea what your talking about."

"That's what they always say."

"Whatever ya' say."

Their conversation halted as Ironhide pulled into the base and let Will out. Will started jogging towards the 'meeting hanger' as Ironhide transformed and stretched. Will had crossed half the distance when Ironhide caught up and offered a ride. Will gratefully accepted the offer and the two stepped into the hanger just as Ratchet did. Ironhide traded nods with Ratchet and paused to place Will on the raised platform that had been installed for the band of humans that practically lived on base.

Within the next five minutes Optimus had arrived as had Bumblebee, who was carrying his charge, Sam and his girlfriend, Mikaela. Bumblebee stopped to place the pair with Will and then moved to stand near Ironhide. The last arrival was Jazz, who trotted in Epps in hand and his head bobbing to whatever music he was listening to. Rather abruptly Jazz suddenly stopped bobbing his head and stared right at Optimus.

"Secretary Keller will..." The Prime was cut off by the whirring thump of helicopter blades.

"There he is." Epps cheerfully commented as he turned to ask Jazz to let him down.

The group filled out of the hanger and went to greet the Defense Secretary. Unaware of what a group of miners in Colorado had just stumbled across.

{-}

"Boss, you are not going to believe what we found." A worker abruptly commented with a shake of his head as he stepped inside Thomas office.

Thomas glanced up from the paperwork he was filling out with a slight frown, "Well, what'd you find?"

"We weren't able to get a good picture, and you'd send me to the nearest psyche ward if I told you _without_ proof. So, you'll need to come with me, besides you need to get out of this office and get some fresh air. Might help you stop being so uptight." The worker said giving the foreman an amused look.

"It's my job to make sure we have all the equipment we need and to make sure no one gets hurt due to faulty equipment, you know that Hank." Thomas responded, giving the worker a flat stare as he rose.

"I do, but still when we're not working you could relax and hang out with the guys." Hank responded leading the way outside and heading towards a nearby pair of four-by-fours.

Thomas trotted up to one of the four-by-fours and frowned before looking up and turning to Hank mouth opening, only to duck as the keys came hurtling at his face. The foreman stood up ever so slowly as he heard the keys smack into a semi truck's trailer. Thomas briefly glared at Hank before whirling around and storming over to where the keys lay and scooped them up. Hank just whistled as innocently as he got comfortable and inserted the key into the starter.

"Hank, when you throw things at people give them a heads up." Thomas snarled as he got situated on his four-by-four.

"Will do boss." Hank replied nervously.

"Good, lead the way." Thomas ordered.

Hank nodded and pulled out headed towards the mine's entrance.

{-}

Upon arrival at on of the deeper parts of the mine Thomas and Hank were greeted by another worker, Joseph, Thomas noted.

"What is it you want me to see?" Thomas asked as soon as the four-by-fours were parked.

"Well, if you'll follow me I'll show you." Joseph responded gesturing for the pair to follow them.

"Do you have to be so secretive?"

"You won't believe us until you see it for yourself." Hank said with a long-suffering sigh.

"Yup." Joseph commented with a nod.

"You just enjoy seeing me suffer." Thomas accused.

"We're serious, this whole thing defies all logic." Hank said as he rolled his eyes.

Thomas growled at them and nearly bumped into Joseph as he stopped. Joseph just tapped Thomas' shoulder and gestured up to a ledge. Thomas craned his head and unable to see whatever they wanted to show him shifted back. When he saw what was sitting on the ledge the foreman's jaw dropped and his eyes grew wide.

"Is that a...?" Thomas asked utter shock clear in his tone.

"Yup." Joseph replied eyeing his boss.

"How?"

"No idea."

"That isn't supposed to be here. We need to call the authorities, and get that removed." Thomas said with a frown.

"Yeah, though its coloring is weird." Hank commented.

The other two nodded and Thomas turned and darted off to find a bullhorn.

About a minute later Thomas voice rang over the site, "Men, Im ordering a stop on all work until we get that thing up there removed. We are not going to be responsible for breaking military equipment. So, you can head up and relax for the rest of the day."

Thomas was answered with chorus of voices giving off affirmatives. Thomas himself stared at the object on the ledge one last time before he turned to leave idly wondering where it came from and how it got up there. As he was heading towards the four-by-fours he heard a few men mention Mission City.

"I bet that thing has something to do with that whole thing of Mission City." One guy muttered as he headed towards the vehicles.

"Yeah, the whole gas line explosion was a lie. My cousin was there that day, according to him the destruction was caused by giant alien robots." Another mentioned.

"That is not a robot." Someone else protested.

"They apparently transformed into car and such, one of the evil one transformed into a F-22 Raptor" The second one said with a shrug.

Thomas shook his head and took one last look at the Predator B drone on the ledge. He glared at the thing and gunned the four-by-fours engine creating a list of numbers he would have to acquire. The rest of the week was going to be long. He really shouldn't have gotten out bed this morning

{-}

Thomas sat in his office and sighed burying his face in his hands. He loved his job, but today just didn't even begin to make sense. Now he had to figure out just who to call to get this drone removed. Suddenly he lifted his head and logged on to his computer quickly beginning to research Predator drones, if he was correct they could remove the drone from the ledge. How they would get it above ground was another discussion altogether, but that could wait a moment.

Weight confirmed he nodded to himself they could lift it off the ledge, the hardest part would be getting through that hole without damaging it. They would not be faulted for denting a seventeen million dollar piece of equipment. Now he needed to figure out how to get it to surface, once it was on the surface the police could be called. Of course, there was the minor threat of some punk kid painting graffiti on its hull, but that was why they had armed guards, and just as insurance they would cover it with a tarp. Content with that plan, Thomas, started looking for semi truck powerful enough to pull the aircraft out of the cave. Thomas stopped and wrote down a note to take pictures of the drone where it sat now, just so they could be accused of stealing the thing. Nodding to himself Thomas grinned as he found the perfect trailer and flatbed for this job.

{-}

 **Disclaimer**

 **I own nothing.**


	3. Weird days and Anticipation

Thomas stood on a raised platform and silently watched all his workers wander in a take a seat. As the last one entered he called out over the din of the many men talking. He unnoticed he sigh and gave a shrill whistle. He instantly had the whole rooms attention.

"All right boys! As I'm sure you're aware, we found a MQ-9 Reaper drone in the mine yesterday. Now we can't lose much time, so today we're going to very carefully remove it. So, step one of the plan is place floodlights on it and take high quality pictures so that we can verify that yes, we did indeed find a military drone underground. The next step will be widening the opening so we reduce chances of damaging the thing. After that we'll carefully put straps on it and use one of the cranes to remove it from the ledge. Once off the ledge we'll place it on the flatbed and drive it to the surface where we'll cover it with a tarp until we can get the police or military out here to remove it. Everyone got that?" Thomas explained, he was met with cheers.

"Good, now whoever is the best photographer, I have this camera for you, everyone else let's go." Thomas called, he was once more met with cheers.

{-}

Down within the mine Joseph supervised the workers as they hooked up the floodlights and then took all the pictures they might need. Soon enough a couple members of the crew were busy securing the drone as another half dozen worked on widening the opening. One of the pair securing th drone for removal made an interested noise.

"What is it?" Joseph called up upon hearing the man.

"There's this weird symbol on the wing. I can't really describe it, but it looks kinda weird." The guy replied.

"We'll take a picture of it once we get it down here."

"Got it. The drone's secure, so whenever these guys are done he can be moved."

"He?" One of the workers asked.

"Yeah, it seems like a he. I mean, I know its a aircraft, but..." The man trailed off with a frown.

"How soon will you be done?" Joseph called to the other group after he heard the drone was secure.

"Fifteen, twenty minutes. The opening is already large enough to move him through we're just making it a tiny bit wider just to be sure we reduce the risk as much as possible." One of the other workers replied with a shrug.

"So we'll be back to normal operations by midmorning?"

"Yeah, unless one of those straps fails."

"We're double checking those straps for damage for the third time." The original worker called out hearing the comment.

"Good. Let's pray all goes well." Joseph muttered as he turned away to make sure the semi got into position.

{-}

Meanwhile in California one William Lennox was still just a little bit upset. As it turned out the only reason he had to at the meeting and couldn't have spent all morning in bed was at least two official Army personnel had to be present with the Defense Secretary, just in case. Even though Optimus had assured the government that the Autobots had no ill intentions towards humans. Despite this fact and the presence of the armed tag-a-long guards there apparently had to be Army personnel just in case, so thoroughly irritated, Will had stormed off in search of some where quiet to take a nap. His search was undeterred even when he heard Epps shrieking in laughter behind him.

This morning was far better seeing as he got to sleep till noon. Ironhide teased him the second he had pulled the truck's door open. He was succinctly told to shut up. They arrived at base soon after, and the small band of humans worked on teaching the Cybertronians human idioms, in turn the humans were taught about Cybertronian history. He and Epps also worked on teaching Sam how to fire a gun, it wasn't going well. But at the end of the day the got a call from Keller who seemed worried.

"Earlier today we had a man in Colorado call the police. Apparently, in starting to dig out a mine the group found a Predator B drone." Keller had explained.

"A Predator drone, underground?" Epps had cut in confusion clear in his voice.

"Indeed, but the miners in removing it from the mine found something far more disturbing." The Defense Secretary continued stopping to gather his thoughts.

"And, what was that Secretary Keller?" Optimus had asked.

What Keller said next shocked the whole group, "A Deception insignia."

Silence reigned for a good minute before the whole group tried speaking at once. Bumblebee had helped quiet everyone down when Sam waved at him. Once order was restored the Defense Secretary continued, "This 'con isn't a recent arrival either. When the mining team found it, they said it was covered in dust and dirt."

"So we have a 'con in Colorado. Has he woken up?" Ratchet said.

"No, despite lifting him with a crane the 'con never transformed and still hasn't. We're moving it to a base in Colorado and will be flying it out to California tomorrow." Keller informed them calmly.

Ratchet abruptly broke into the conversation with a yelp, "Stasis, the 'con either placed himself in stasis or died, probably due to lack of fuel."

"I fail to see how that is relevant." Keller commented.

"The 'con should have woken up the second they touched him, for them to lift him with a crane and then move him to the surface without him waking. He has to be in stasis, hereby you don't need to rush in moving him."Ratchet explained patiently with a thoughtful expression.

"Right then, I'll be there at ten, the transport plane should arrive around eleven. Captain Lennox, you're going to have to get up early." Keller chuckled.

"I'm fine with that." Will responded respectfully.

"Good, I'll see you all in the morning." With that the Defense Secretary ended the call.

Turning to the east Optimus voice rumbled in the still evening air, "Tomorrow, I feel, will change everything we Cybertronians know about the universe."

"Think this mech is part of a prophecy?" Jazz piped up suddenly.

"That remains to be seen, I will have to see the mech for myself." The Prime responded crossing his arms behind his back.

"So, I can't just shoot the guy and be done with it?" Ironhide grunted.

The Prime gave his weapons specialist an unimpressed glare, "No, Ironhide. We will not attack a defenseless mech, if he attacks us we will subdue him, we won't be killing anyone tomorrow."

The black mech grumbled, but didn't argue. Jazz snickered in the background, he was promptly glared at. Will shook his head and tapped Ironhide's leg, when the mech glanced down the Ranger tossed his head in the direction of his house. Ironhide nodded once understanding instantly and transformed, swinging his drivers side door open for his charge. Will idly waved at Epps over his shoulder as he clambered into the Topkick's cab. Will glanced back at the base as they left, there was a weird feeling in his gut. Tomorrow was going to be very interesting.

{-}

Earlier that day in Colorado one Thomas Selco sighed as he sat down in his office. The drone was on its way to the surface, there was the tiny scare of the drone being heavier than anticipated and the straps nearly snapped. Fortunately they had only lifted thing a few inches when the noticed the stain on the straps, so they lowered it back down and secured it with straps rated for higher weights. Thankfully the semi was able to pull it and remarkably it didn't slip off at any point. The drone was now shelters under a enormous tarp and was guarded by several pieces of equipment.

He had called the police department and they had sent a pair of officers out. When the officers saw the drone they politely informed him that this Water-Synchro out of their league. He had shrugged and told them that he couldn't very well just call the military. One chuckled and then the pair had called it in. Not long after the police officers left a military jeep pulled up, and upon conformation that yes, there was a Predator drone they sent for a transport. In the meantime Thomas had shown them the strange insignia. The sergeant had tensed up and then darted off both Thomas and the Lieutenant stared after him confused.

The blare of a horn startled the foreman from his thoughts. Rising from his chair, the foreman trotted out to watch the squad move the massive aircraft. Within half an hour the aircraft was secured and covered on the transport.

"Thank you for returning our drone." The Sergeant from earlier told him tersely before darting towards the transport leaving his Lieutenant to gather the jeep they came in.

Thomas watched quietly as the group left brows furrowed in confusion. Once they were gone the foreman turned away and muttered under his breath, "Today was a weird day. Though I'm glad that's over."

With that established the foreman wandered off intent on making sure his subordinates weren't slacking. After all they had lost nearly half of the day to drone removal.

{-}

 **Disclaimer**

 **I own nothing.**


	4. Fights and Discoveries

The ragtag team of Autobots stood watching the sky, waiting on the arrival of one John Keller. Sitting in the shadow of the closest hanger were the Cybertronians human companions. The four humans watched their respective guardians as they shifted and, in the case of Ratchet, prowled around.

The entire group was on edge, some more nervous than others but hiding it well. One Samuel Witwicky's gaze flickered repeatedly from the sky to his guardian, Bumblebee and back. Captain William Lennox was also watching the sky a frown on his face, clearly he shared his guardian's reservation about bringing a Decepticon onto base. Sergeant Robert Epps seemed to share his guardian's uninterested attitude, but if you watched closely or laugh enough you could see the tense readiness in his muscles. Of the band of humans only Mikaela Banes was calm, watching the proceedings with a sort of detached air.

Suddenly the tense silence over the base was shattered by the familiar whirring thump of helicopter blades. Not long after said helicopter was touching down and its passengers were disembarking.

"Defense Secretary." Will greeted with a salute.

"At ease gentlemen. Do you happen to have a projector? I meant to ask last night, but there was so much going on." Keller said almost sheepishly with slight shrug.

"We do. It'll take about a cycle to set up." Ratchet commented in a distracted manner.

"Excellent. I can give you all a quick briefing then." Keller said with a nod and then gestured for the group to lead the way.

{-}

An hour later, Ratchet, who was in the middle of asking a question, was cut off by the roar of a jet. The group immediately glanced at each other and headed for the doors. Once outside they watched the massive plane as it descended, landed, and rolled to a stop. The Autobots stalked forwards, humans kept under their watchful gazes. The plane's loading ramp slowly lowered revealing the same Reaper drone the group had become acquainted with sitting strapped down with various personnel scatter around it with sabot round loaded guns.

In a handful of minutes the 'con was sitting on the tarmac, surrounded by Autobots. The Autobots themselves were being extremely vigilant, Bumblebee and Jazz stood watching the sky for incoming Seekers, Ironhide and Optimus had their respective weapons at the ready keeping them trained on the chassis of the drone alt-mode before them, and Ratchet was standing the closest running a multitude of scans along the Decepticon's frame.

"Well, I have good news. Our friend here is alive..." Ratchet started evenly only to be cut off by Ironhide.

"How is that good news. We now have a very much alive 'con on our base." The Weapons Specialist snarled.

Ratchet turned and glared at the black armored mech before continuing, "He's also in stasis. Though despite that and how long it appears he was in that cave his fuel levels are satisfactory if a little low."

"So he didn't slip into stasis due to lack of fuel?" Jazz questioned curiously.

"Indeed, it seems he placed himself in stasis, somehow." The medic stated puzzled.

"What do you mean, somehow?" Came from Epps, who was standing beside Jazz.

"Stasis is the Cybertronian equivalent to a human's coma. Stasis can be caused by serious injury, lack of fuel, or a medic placing a patient in stasis to preform a sensitive operation. For a mech to be able to place themselves in stasis at will, is unheard of." Ratchet responded running yet another scan.

"Right, so basically this guy is a massive anomaly?" Will questioned glancing at his guardian.

"Something like that. Now be quiet, I need to concentrate." The medic said as he lay on his back running scans on the drone's belly. So at the medic's word silence fell over the base. About fifteen minutes later the medic made a triumphant sound and placed a small device on the drone's side right behind its wing. Ratchet proceeded to climb to his feet and carefully watched the drone with a smirk.

Ironhide, who was getting more and more impatient, started to say something when the drone transformed. Startled the mismatched group started to open fire, only to halt when a battered and misshaped wrench hit Ironhide in the head and clattered to the ground. Ratchet gave the entire group a flat slightly irritated stare and walked towards the mech now sprawled across the tarmac.

Ratchet halted beside the mech and kneeled at his side bringing his scanner up once more. Behind the medic, Will, had requested that Ironhide carry him. So after picking up their charges the Autobots crept forward to inspect the new mech.

The two most notable things about the mech were his surprisingly thin frame and the fancy ornamental chest piece. These two things were quickly forgotten when the group noticed his face or rather his visor. Now it wasn't uncommon for Cybertronians to wear some sort of visor, but to have the visor as a face was downright unsettling. The mech's thin shoulders bore the proud Decepticon emblem. An emblem that looked surprisingly similar to the mech featureless visor of a face, but that was beside the point.

Ratchet frowned as he scanned the mech once more picking up several strange but not unheard of anomalies. The decoration on the mech's chest was just that giving off no signs of life, and while the visor was detachable it appeared to take a data burst from the mech himself to remove it.

"Everything appears relatively normal. The visor is part of his frame and unless we want to seriously want to damage him it's not coming off. The chest piece is just that." Ratchet reported climbing back to his feet and turning around. His movement caused everyone to miss the slight twitch of a digit.

{-}

Unknown to both Autobots and humans getting the mech in front of them to transform did what nothing else could. It started to wake him.

{-}

Soundwave woke slowly immediately detecting the nearby Autobots and thus keeping still. Quickly scanning both his frame and the area around him, the Spymaster started to wake Lazerbeak. As his symbiote woke the mech idly checked his calendar and froze before quickly relaxing his frame. Unfortunately this movement was noticed, fortunately the human who saw him tense thought it was a trick of the light. Suddenly his thoughts were broken by a stream of thoughts from Lazerbeak. Gently calming the symbiote, the spy quietly began to listen to the Autobots conversation.

{-}

"So, what's the verdict?" Will asked attention shifting up to the Autobots leader.

"We will continue to watch over the mech. Under our supervision will allow us to monitor him for signs of wakefulness and allow us to keep him from attacking humans." Optimus decided voice rumbling glancing down at where Will stood beside Ironhide on the ground.

"You're sure about that." Keller called sounding slightly irritated considering he was surrounded by guards this wasn't really surprising.

"I am sure." Optimus said and seemed to be saying more when one of the soldiers yelped. The Autobots whirled around to see the Decepticon had risen to feet and was now silently staring the group down. Cannons snapped up targeting the mech's chest. Somewhat surprisingly the mech didn't even flinch and just continued to stare down at them (this was an astounding accomplishment considering Optimus stood a good three feet taller than him).

"What is your designation?" The Prime demanded.

The mech's visor lit up and flowing out of speakers came Megatron's voice, "Soundwave."

In response Ironhide open fired. Soundwave simply shifted his flat blade like arms to in front of his chest. To the surprise of all not only did his arms withstand the attack the mech stood unmoved by the force of the explosive blasts. Soundwave lowered his arms and took one single earth shaking step forward, as he did this his right servo came up and he delivered a gladiator's challenge.

Ironhide froze upon seeing the challenge and silently cursed his own stupidity. With an irked huff he brought his cannons back up and gestured for the others to move away.

"What just happened?" Will asked from his new position in Optimus' palm.

"Soundwave gave Ironhide a gladiator's challenge. His only options were to accept or be attacked the second he stepped away." Optimus explained as he set Will down and turned to watch the match.

"So you guys can't help him?" Sam asked brow furrowed.

"Correct. It's a one versus one challenge. If we interceded Soundwave would just attempt murder all of us." Jazz answered.

The humans all nodded and settled in to watch.

{-}

Soundwave quietly observed his opponent noting everything from cannon class to the tiniest dents and scratches in black armor. The spy shifted slightly when he saw the Weapons Specialist nod and returned the nod with a fearless air. Instantly the air was filled with plasma blasts. In response Soundwave sidestepped and walked forwards with his ever menacing stroll. Ironhide upon seeing the mech response foolishly charged forwards right into Soundwave's reach.

With a flick of his wrist Soundwave deployed a thin dagger and took a single step forwards. Now to many this move would have been suicide, but Soundwave knew precisely what he was aiming at. You see right where Ironhide's cannons linked to his shoulder armor said armor was slight thinner. To get to this patch of armor took incredible luck or skill though seeing as you had to get past the cannons defending the mech, and thus the Autobots had never bothered to add extra armor there. Oh well, their mistake, Soundwave's gain.

With one fluid strike Soundwave had slit wires powering the cannons and not giving the mech time to process what had just happened, Soundwave grabbed the Weapons Specialist's neck and threw him to the far side of the base. Ironhide landed with a groan and started to sit up only to freeze as a shadow fell over him. In a handful of fluid strides the Decepticon Spymaster had crossed the base and was looming over the recovering Weapons Specialist. When the mech started to sit up and froze Soundwave knew he had won, but if he didn't end it he knew the Autobot would keep fighting to dumb to see he had been beaten, so the Spymaster swung one flat arm and knocked the black mech down again. This was followed up by Soundwave slamming his pede onto Ironhide's head.

Ironhide shifted ever so slightly and Soundwave pressed down harder. The mech relaxed slightly and flashed the gladiator above him the yield hand signal. Sound wave promptly took his pede off the Autobot's head and stepped away keeping a diligent optic on the other Autobots and their human pets as they rushed over to help.

As the group worried over Ironhide they momentarily forgot about the visored mech. Said visored mech was busy linking to many human frequencies and borrowing various satellites, he idly noticed another of himself on one of said satellites and quickly blocked his own signal. Quickly double checking that he hadn't been detected the spy tilted his head as he detected an energon vein not fifty miles from his location. How the Autobots had not found it was a mystery, but he would take full advantage of the Autobots failure. These particular Autobots where exceedingly dumb though, he would take the time he spent retrieving fuel to consider his option. With that decision made the spymaster crouched and sprang into the air transforming with a thought. Then the mech gunned his engine shooting off toward his target.

{-}

While Soundwave was tracking energon and linking into news networks for information retrieval the Autobots had rushed over to their defeated but still very much alive comrade. Ratchet kneeled next to Ironhide and set to work repairing what he could, when Ironhide attempted to sit up once more the medic barked, "Hold still."

Going still Ironhide waited for the all clear to sit up. Once Ratchet had taken a step back the mech sat up and idly mused into the air, "Note to self never get into a fight with a gladiator."

"You're okay then?" Will asked from where he was standing beside Optimus.

"I will be." With that the Weapons Specialist pushed himself up.

"The actual damage your frame took was minimal, unfortunately Soundwave over there completely disabled your cannons by cutting the supply lines and did quite a bit of damage to your shoulder armor. It'll take me a few days to repair it all, so until then you get to sitting out of combat." Ratchet informed Ironhide succinctly.

"So I'm getting extra armor?" Ironhide asked brow plate rising.

"Potentially." Ratchet responded.

Their conversation was cut off by one of the humans nervously stating the fact that Soundwave was crouching as if he was about to spring into the air. The Autobots whirled around to witness the spy leaping gracefully into the sky and transforming before accelerating to the northeast.

"Jazz, Bumblebee, give pursuit. Tell us if he's returning to the other Decepticon's." Optimus ordered.

"Got it." The two responded in sync as they darted of and jumped the fence before transforming and racing after the spy.

The Prime silently watched after the pair before turning away and helping Ratchet with Ironhide's injuries. He heard the humans turn to their Defense Secretary for orders. The time until Jazz and Bumblebee called in what the Decepticon was doing would remain extremely tense, and this Soundwave would just keep shocking them.

{-}

 **Disclaimer**

 **I own nothing.**


	5. Blue Energon and Paint Balls

Jazz and Bumblebee tore across the open desert chasing after the speeding 'con. A speeding 'con that had slowed down just so they could follow him it appeared. But, that was unimportant considering he was headed straight for a cliff face and didn't appear to be slowing or trying to dodge said cliff, maybe he had a warp drive. The pair wasn't all that surprised when the 'con shot upwards, remarkably the mech just stalled his engine and transformed falling from above, thus the two were forced to slam on their brakes to keep from hitting the mech.

Soundwave merely glanced over his shoulder and strode forwards toward the cliff face. The 'bots behind him also transformed and watched the 'cons next actions carefully. Ignoring his tagalongs Soundwave scanned the wall before him and every now and then pushed against it, soon enough the mech found a noticeably weaker portion of the wall. Once the weakest point had been identified the visored mech set about removing the wall from his path, however a lack of explosives and digging equipment caused the mech to spring upwards to search the top of the cliff for an entrance.

Beneath Soundwave, Jazz and Bumblebee huffed just the slightest bit irritated and suddenly Jazz smacked his helm. Bumblebee glanced over curiously an started to ask him what was wrong, but was interrupted by the cliff in front of them exploding outwards. The pair brought their cannons online and got ready for a fight only to freeze when they saw the 'con crouched int eh dirt furrows behind him. They shifted back and stowed their weapons away once more, before them Soundwave stood and gestured for them to follow.

So the pair followed after the faceless mech as he headed straight toward a downward incline of the earth. As the trio headed deeper into the Earth's crust the Autobots noticed a slowly brightening blue glow. Bumblebee promptly slid up against the wall to the right in an attempt to see what the blue glow belonged to, he was unsuccessful. But, soon enough the trio stepped into a cavern filled with massive glowing blue crystals. Jazz and Bumblebee stopped jaws dropping as they saw just what filled the cavern. In absolute awe Jazz quietly spoke, "Blue energon!"

"So, now would be a good time to report back to Optimus." 'Bee said flatly and glanced at Jazz who was still gaping at the cavern. Soundwave just glanced at them and headed off to find a few crystals he could carry. So with a roll of his optics and a shake of his head, Bumblebee tapped his comm to share just what Soundwave had found with Optimus.

{-}

Now while Jazz and Bumblebee had been following Soundwave, Optimus and Ratchet were attempting to get a shellshocked Ironhide on his feet and to Med Bay. So after trying to get the mech on his feet for a good few minutes, Optimus gave an exasperated huff through his vents and stood giving his soldier an unimpressed _look_ and started to speak only to be cut off by a maniacally laughing Will. All of the humans edged away from the man, concern and some degree of horror clear on their faces and Epps just put his face in his hands and muttered, " _Oh_ boy."

"Hold on I've got something that should wake him right up. I'll be right back, _don't do_ _anything_." Will ordered before darting off rubbing his hands together in maniacal glee.

"Should we move?" Ratchet asked staring after the Ranger frozen in shock with a chill running down his spine.

"I don't know. Will has a plan obviously what it is remains to be seen, but I do know that he has been planning revenge on 'Hide here for waking him up." Epps said voice slightly muffled because he was still holding his head in his hands.

"Do I need to be worried?" Keller suddenly asked.

"No sir, he respects you too much. You'll be fine, also you're kind of his boss, so." Epps said having finally lifted his head from his hands. Just then Will returned with some strange contraption and turned to Ratchet and Optimus asking them to move still wearing a maniac grin. Once the pair had moved out of splash range Will aimed his little device and hit the power switch. Instantly what appeared to be paint balls came flying out and hit the Weapons Specialist in the chest causing his chest plate to be splattered with varying shades of pink. The feeling of paint being splattered on his armor startled the mech out of his reverie causing him to dive away with a yelp. Will just laughed in a slightly insane manner causing Ironhide to whirl around, glare plain on his face.

"What was that for, Will?" Came the furious demand.

"Waking me up early." Will replied with a smirk.

"I should've seen it coming." The mech growled and turned to stalk off.

Ratchet grabbed the Weapon Specialist's shoulder and dragged him along with a scowl, "Oh no, I need to get your cannons supply lines reconnected. Also, your frame needs to be double checked for any sustained damage."

"Fine, I'll cooperate." Ironhide grunted and tossed Will a look that screamed that he would get revenge, Will just waved and sauntered off.

Optimus suddenly perked up and brought his hand to the side of his head. The band of humans quietly watched him for a moment before trotting off towards the plane to get it ready to return to its usual duties. Meanwhile Optimus' optics grew wide and the Prime seemed shocked and after shaking himself he spoke seemingly to no one, "Hold on for just a moment Bumblebee. Let me get everyone in one place."

With that said the Prime dropped his hand and waved for the now smaller group of humans to follow him. As soon as he was sure they were coming he set out for the main hanger, which was where Ratchet and Ironhide were. As the group stood into the main hanger the pair gave them a strange look, but abruptly paid attention as the Prime brought their short range communications system online and combed Bumblebee.

"Bumblebee, do you read?" Optimus asked.

"~ _Yeah, I hear you, Prime._ ~" Came the response.

"Good, now would repeat what you told me."

"~ _We followed Soundwave about fifty miles to a solid cliff face. After investigating the cliff he flew up to the top and dropped through the massive hole in the top of said cliff. After that he shatter a weak point of the cliff to let us follow him. He led us right to a supply of Blue Energon._ ~"

Utter silence reigned for a good minute only to be suddenly interrupted by shouting from the three Autobots. The humans slapped their hands over their ears and Epps headed towards the nearby foghorn. Five seconds later the Autobots abruptly went silent when the foghorn screamed within the hanger. Keller nodded at Epps and turned to the Autobots, "What exactly is Blue Energon?"

"Energon is the lifeblood of all Cybertronians, and Blue Energon is considered holy with our society." The Prime explained still in a stunned awe.

"Yes, if Soundwave tracked the Energon and is now harvesting it. It says quite a lot about him." Ratchet put in a puzzled expression on his face.

"So if this Energon is so close how have you guys not detected it?" Sam asked watching proceedings in confusion.

"Blue Energon can be extremely dangerous for one, the reason behind this is the massive amounts of energy it generates, though thankfully it's not all that dangerous unless it's ingested. Also we don't track Blue Energon." The Prime answered.

"~ _Right, also this deposit is massive. T_ _his cavern massive and keeps extending as well as pathways branching off at random points. That's not even taking the size of the crystals into account, their are quite a few that are taller than you are Optimus._ ~" The scout explained.

"By the Allspark." Ratchet murmured in awe still tending Ironhide.

"Indeed." Optimus agreed with a slight nod.

"I am so dead." Ironhide piped up in the background.

"You'll be fine." Will responded rolling his eyes.

"No, no, you don't understand, Will. Whether you know it or not you don't attack a mech that is fueled by Blue Energon." The Weapon Specialist explain with rapid shake if his head.

"I don't get it, what's so substantial about this guy being fuel by this Blue Energon?" Mikaela asked brow furrowed.

"Mechs who are fueled by Blue Energon can only be fueled by that particular kind of Energon. Those that did consume it were extremely rare and considered the Hands of Primus." Ratchet said.

"What about the Primes then?" Came from Sam.

"Primes are the descendants of the original Thirteen Primes. But, a mech fueled by Blue Energon could override anything and everything the reigning Prime and High Lord Protector said." Optimus responded in a distracted tone before turning to Ratchet, "Can he transform?"

"Yes, his cannons are currently inoperable, but driving won't hurt him." Ratchet said moving away from the Weapons Specialist.

"Good, Bumblebee send your coordinates with will meet you there." The Prime instructed.

"~ _Sending coordinates... Coordinates sent._ ~" Came from the scout.

"I have received them, we will arrive in fifteen minutes." The Prime responded cutting the link and gesturing for the group to follow.

Optimus stepped over the fence and offered his hand to the humans. Soon enough the group was headed towards the coordinates Bumblebee had sent. Unaware of a number of things about to be revealed across the planet that would shake the universe as they knew it.


	6. Dark Corridors

Silence ruled as the group of ten lifeforms sped towards this Energon deposit. In the lead was a red semi truck, and within its cab sat two teenagers, behind the truck was a neon green rescue truck, and behind that a black GMC. Unheard by the surrounding world the three vehicles were explain the particulars of their culture to their passengers.

"So, basically these bots who are these 'Hands of Primus' are royalty?" Epps said gaze settling on the truck's dash.

"In a sense. But, their ability to consume Blue Energon was considered sacred and thus they became know as the 'Hands of Primus'." A voice came from the radio.

"Right, so what's the history behind it's sacredness?"

"An ancient Cybertronian found it and when they presented it to a Priest of Primus the Priest had a vision, and really it just became so ingrained in our culture no one really argued."

"Intersting, though what's the name of that Priest?"

"I don't remember at this moment. Why?"

"Feeling I got."

"Our destination is close." Optimus interrupted as he began to slow down. As if the massive hole in the cliff face and coordinates weren't enough, Jazz was present just inside said hole in said cliff face. The silver mech seemed to be in shock considering he was staring of into the distance completely ignoring the group as they approached. Coming to a halt the Autobots let out their passengers and transformed, Ratchet smirked as he observed the team's Second-in-Command and spoke in a singsong voice.

"Oh, Jazz, it's time for a checkup."

Jazz immediately leaped back and tried to blend into the shadows while desperately plotting escape routes. Epps sniggered and walked up to his panicky guardian giving him a reassuring pat on the foot. The 'bot glanced down and proceeded to pick the man up, and Ratchet found himself pinioned under an annoyed stare. After the medic gave him a cheeky smile the silver mech waved for the group to follow him.

The humans found themselves guarded in massive palms as the Autobots obediently followed Jazz. Soon enough the tunnel they walked along was lit with a gentle blue glow and rounding the corner showed why, before them stood massive crystals growing from the rock like barnacles.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Bumblebee whispered careful not to break the emotions settling in the air.

"Yeah, in an almost creepy way." Sam responded staring wide eyed.

"Shall we investigate?" Keller asked tone almost eager. Optimus nodded sharply and quietly gave an order to his troops.

"Finding Soundwave is our top priority. The next priority is to not crush the Energon."

"Got it, watch where we step, and comm if we locate Soundwave." Ironhide commented calmly.

"Indeed, also if you find Soundwave guard him." Optimus stressed as he glanced down at the humans in his hands before handing them off to Bumblebee, and then took Secretary Keller and his guards from Ironhide. Receiving a chorus of affirmatives the Prime gave another order, "Alright, move out!"

{-}

Soundwave idly wandered through the field of Energon scanning the Autobots communications as he tried to fix the major hole in his plan. Actually there were two holes in his plan, the first was his inability to harvest Energon without a mining lazer, and the second was he had to refine the Energon from its purest form.

Huffing the mech suddenly stopped mere inches from the wall, raising his head to glare at it the spy froze. Unlike most of the walls in this cavern this portion of wall didn't have Energon growing out of it and it was made of metal. Triumph flashed in the mech's hidden optics, reaching for the access panel the mech entered a multitude of override codes and strolled in when the door slid open with barely a whisper of sound. Door sliding shut behind him the mech ventured down the sloping path, eventually coming to an what was probably a common area, and seeing the six hallways the spy knew he was correct. So with an exasperated huff the mech turned and went down the first hallway to his left.

Stalking down the hall the spymaster stopped at a partially opened door. Sound wave briefly considered forcing the door open more, but halted when he realized he could slip through if he deployed his symbiote, and promptly did so. Lazerbeak dropped from the spymaster's chest and smoothly transformed circling her master with a few curious chirps. Soundwave silently gave his symbiote a quick explanation as he inspected the gap more closely. Soundwave sidled through the opening and turned to offer Lazerbeak assistance only to freeze as the minicon darted forward and flew sideways through the gap. With a playful huff and a shake of his head Soundwave spoke to his symbiote over their bond fondness radiating over the bond as he 'spoke'. **Showoff.** Lazerbeak chirped smugly as he spun, before swooping down to link with his host once more.

Glancing at the ceiling briefly the masked mech glanced around noting the berths and strode towards the door that no doubt lead to the mining overseer's office. The officer was surprised to find the door unlocked and stepped inside, the first thing he noticed was the good sized desk its surface bare. The second was the locked data pad cabinet. Gathering his thoughts, Soundwave stepped forwards deploying his tentacles to unlock the data pad cabinet while he investigated the desk's drawers. The spy immediately noticed that all but one of the drawers where locked and set about disengaging said lock, needless to say the spy was surprised when the drawer unlocked instantly. Peering in the drawer the mech noted each one was meticulously labeled and activating the first few proved them to be standard reports leading up to the fall of the Nemesis. But, the final one was both a pleasant surprise and a wealth of information.

 ** _"Date, human year 2013, month August, day 17"_**

 ** _"Earlier today as one of our miners was listening to various frequencies and discovered some distressing news. The Autobots scout had slain Lord Megatron, Commander Startscream and Commander Shockwave have vanished, presumedly taken captive by the Autobots, Commander Soundwave has also vanished once more presumed taken captive by the Autobots. CMO Knock Out has defected to the Autobots and if he shows up, will be shot on sight, after all he abandoned the Cause. Also, due the the Autobots medic Predaking has betrayed our master. But nevertheless none off this crew are willing to assist the Autobots and we have come to_** ** _the conclusion that we will placed ourselves in the stasis pods we received recently._**

 ** _But, first we'll find a way to consume or destroy the harvested Energon. Denial of resources and all that. Hopefully, we will be found by loyal Deception officers in a relatively short period of time. Unfortunately I get the feeling we'll be indisposed for a very long time."_**

 ** _"2839245  
Cellophane"_**

Soundwave shifted his weight onto his heels and felt a flicker of something pass through him. Returning the data pad to its place Soundwave headed for the door, silently deploying Lazerbeak. He had a mining crew to find and wake, hopefully there would be any unpleasant surprises. Soundwave scoffed silently, their would no doubt be an incident of some kind, probably caused by the Autobots.

{-}

Bumblebee slinked through the maze that the Blue Energon had created as it grew. Being a scout most defiantly had its perks, one of said perks was knowing how to track evasive Decepticons. Blue optics narrowed as the scout crouched, placing his charges on the ground, and ran the tip of his finger over a shallow indentation.

"Find something 'Bee?" Sam asked glancing up at his guardian, who nodded and scooped his charges up placing them safely on his shoulders never breaking stride.

{-}

Soundwave stalked down the third hall, hopefully this one would be more productive than the second. So far the spy had found the sleeping quarters and the wash racks , he was hoping this one would be the control room. Reaching the door the mech hit the keypad's open button and the door slid aside with the screech of metal on metal.

Peering into the room the spy noted the carefully organized piles of mining equipment. Mood improving slightly the former Third-in-Command stepped through the door, with some luck the stasis pods would be along the farthest wall of this room. Unremarkably the door slid shut behind him, but as soon as it closed completely, the room's air gained a sinister feel causing Soundwave to creep forwards observing everything around him.

Unnoticed by the spy a trio of mech watched him from behind a drill rig, gazes hungry.

{-}

Meanwhile, Bumblebee continued to track Soundwave's almost unnoticeable trail optics practically glued to the floor. He was startled out of his thoughts, when Mikaela yelped. Instantly defense protocols snapped online and the scout's cannons snapped out as his battle mask dropped. Upon realizing his opponent was a wall the mech relaxed as Sam chuckled. Going back to ignoring all distractions the yellow mech kneeled down inspecting the pede marks in the floors trying to track their path. He was startled out of his thoughts once more when Sam made an observation, "Wait a second, this wall is made of metal, also it doesn't have Energon growing out of it."

That got Bumblebee's attention and he rose idly examining the wall cursing his own inattentiveness silently. Focusing more intently the mech wondered if this slab of metal was a nothing but a wall or was it a door. Any further examination was halted by Mikaela gasping, "Look in the upper left corner!"

Both Sam and Bumblebee's gazes snapped up and both froze at the Decepticon symbol leering down at them. Shaking himself out of his revere the scout tapped his comm, " _~I found something, I'm sending you all coordinates._ "

Without waiting for a response the scout disengaged and started searching for the lock.

{-}

Dread had settled over Soundwave, something was desperately wrong, he didn't know what it was, but something was wrong. Suddenly a hiss come from behind him and he whirled around. Standing behind him was an Insecticon. The Insecticon crouched and hissed once more, this hiss was joined by two more, and the spy shifted to see all three of his attackers. Suddenly the first Insecticon leapt forward with a cry Soundwave hoped he'd never hear again, "Energon!"

{-}

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing.**


	7. Terrorcon fight

Soundwave dove to the right dodging the Insecticons lunge, the Insecticon continued to fly through the air and slammed into its counterpart. Leaping to his pedes the spy twisted slamming the flat of his shield like arm into the sole Eradicon causing it to stumble back, a follow up blow to its side caused it to crash into the recovering Insecticons. With his attackers stunned, Soundwave quickly retrieved the Resonance Blaster from his subspace and strapped it onto his arm.

The spy never got a chance to use it, as the Eradicon leapt at him proboscis extending. Neatly sidestepping, the spook extended his tentacles, one proved with electricity the other spinning into a drill. As the Eradicon twisted and lunged at the spy once more it was met with thousands of volts of electricity sending it's frame into convulsions, the second tentacle slammed into the Terrorcon's chest quickly drilling through armor and destroying the mech's spark, though just for good measure the spook direct his de-facto drill upwards into the Eradicon's helm destroy his central processor.

While he was murdering the Terrorcon, Soundwave had turned to watch the Insecticons (perks of having a secondary processor), surprisingly the pair was still on the ground stunned. So, Eradicon dead, the former TIC turned towards the pair and raised the Resonance Blaster, firing it in short order. The pair screeched as the weapons sonic waves slammed into them, noticing that the Insecticons were no where near death the spook promptly upped the weapon's power output. A wave of five sonic blasts hit the mecha sprawled in the dirt, a quick scan proved that their sparks had stopped beating, and with their deaths confirmed the spy stepped forward crushing their helms to make sure they wouldn't get back up.

Attackers dead the spook turned to continue his exploration only to freeze as he saw the darkness was lit up with a total of fourteen gleaming red optic bands. The mechs they belonged to stood in staggered circles, the outer made up of Eradicons, and the inner made of Insecticons. With an exasperated huff, Soundwave started searching the human's internet looking for coordinates that would allow him to drop the Terrorcons in a volcano. Soundwave was forced to slow that project down as the Eradicons shifted their arms into cannons and the Insecticons lunged with a screech.

{-}

The first of the Autobots to arrive at Bumblebee's location was Jazz who also (somehow) missed the differences in the walls, "What's up, 'Bee?"

"Well, as you can see this wall is for one thing made of metal and for another has no Energon growing out of it. You'll also notice the Decepticon symbol in the top left corner. Considering the keypad and seams that most definitely belong to a hatch I guessing this is a door. Do you think you can hack it?" The Camaro asked with a quirked optic ridge.

Blinking slowly Jazz turned to the wall for a moment before responding, "Oh, yeah, how did I miss that?"

"I missed it too, Mikaela had to point it out to me."

"Huh, well then let me work my magic," Jazz said starting forwards only to paused servo going to his shoulder, "Can ya hold Epps for a minute?"

"Yeah, no problem." Bumblebee agreed accepting the Ranger from the Autobot's spymaster.

"Talk about me like I'm not here, thanks" Epps snarked from where he was being held in 'Bee's servo. The Cybertronians chuckled at the mans offense and went back to watching for the others in Bumblebee's case, and starting to hack the door in Jazz's case.

{-}

To a normal mech being surrounded on all sides was a death sentence, to Soundwave it was a mere inconvenience, especially when the mechs surrounding him had horrible aim. The two Insecticons on his left where dragged together forming a body shield that Soundwave used to both block one Eradicon's blaster fire and as a platform to escape the circle he was trapped in.

As he landed outside the circle the spook dodged to the right and lunged forward aiming the sharp edge of his arm at the Eradicon's neck joint. Moments later the Terrorcon crumpled to the ground, spinning around the spy headed back towards the the main circle, crushing the Eradicon's spark chamber as he went. One down, thirteen to go. Oh, look he'd finally found coordinates to a volcano's caldera, how... exciting. Now, who to test it on?

The spook's gaze flicked from mech to mech until it settled on the two Insecticons he had smacked together earlier. The pair had climbed back to their pedes and were buzzing angrily. Before they had a chance to move a ground-bridge appeared beneath them and they fell to their deaths. With the portal still open, Soundwave grabbed two Eradicons and tossed them into the vortex, right as it closed.

Seven of the nine remaining Terrorcons threw caution to the wind and charged. However Soundwave was expecting this and promptly took a few steps back to avoid the flailing claws of an Insecticon. Pausing for a brief moment the spy deployed his razor edged dagger, sensing incoming blaster fire the spook's attention settled on nearby Eradicon. Spinning out of the way of another Insecticon's claws the spy lunged for th eEradicon and slammed his dagger into it's chest. Picking the terror on up, Soundwave promptly used it as a shield and then threw it's lifeless shell at one of the other Eradicons knocking to down.

An Insecticon took it's chance and leapt at the spy, who slid to the right and planted one of his tentacles on it's shoulder and promptly electrocuted it, an improvised drill finished the job. Gazing at his remaining five opponents stoically, Soundwave deployed Lazerbeak, who shot into the air and blasted the two reamaining Eradcions who were attempting to shoot her master. This barrage of blasted fire killed one Eradicon and seriously injured the other.

Meanwhile Soundwave has gotten into a grappling match with one of the Insecticon's. See this match would only be ended if one of the other Insecticons, which wouldn't happen as Lazerbeak and distracting them, the spy disengaged and opened a ground-bridge beneath the Insecticon's pedes. The Insecticon promptly fell to his fiery doom.

Attention settling on his three remains opponents the spy silently ordered Lazerbeak to finish off the Eradicon. The remaining two Insecticons lunged forwards and the spy charged and slammed the Resonance Blaster into the dirt. Son I wave promptly tore into the ground setting off localized tremors and causing the Insecticons to slam into the ground. Ceasing his ground pulverizing attack the spy stood and, after briefly glancing at the pair, opened a ground-bridge beneath them. Once more mechs fell to their fiery grave.

Giving a tired huff the spy turned to continue his exploration. But, as he started to walk away blaster fire sounded directly behind him. Unprepared and unexpected Soundwave had no time to dodge and the shots dug into the spy's back plating. Lazerbeak dropped from his chest with an enrage screech and efficiently destroy the Terrorcon that had snuck up on her master.

Straightening up the spy started to continue again only for an Insecticonto slam into him side, claws tore armor from protoform and drew dangerous amounts of Energon. Hearing the Terrorcon give a quiet hiss the spy attempted to thrash only to be held in place by the creature's immense strength. But as the Terrorcon deployed it's probiscus the spy finally got just enough space to slam his dagger into the Insecticon's face. The Terrorcon attempted to screech in pain only to freeze as the dagger implanted in it's face was dragged down slicing it's throat open and piercing it's spark.

Vents giving a wheeze Soundwave managed to shrug th enormous corpse off of his frame and stumbled towards the door. Lazerbeak hovered overhead chirping worriedly, as Soundwave crossed the threshold he ordered Lazerbeak to retrieve the Autobots medic. When she gave a worried click he stared up at her, and repeated his request as he attempted to slow his wounds bleeding. Finally the symbiote conceded chirping quietly before taking off down the tunnel. Leaning up against the wall Soundwave plodded on tiredly but refusing to rest. Though as he slid along the wall suddenly vanished and he fell into a hidden cavity which was filled with stasis pods.

As his vision dimmed the spy sent activation codes to one of the pods. Soundwave lost consciousness as the pod door swung open.

{-}

Above the Autobots had all gathered at the door. The last one to arrive at the rendezvous point was Optimus. Immediately after the Prime arrived the group had hunkered down as tremors rocked the area. After the tremors settled the group had turned to Bumblebee for an explanation. He had started in on the small story when the door behind them slid open.

"Nice work." Epps said with a grin.

"That wasn't me..." Jazz replied standing slowly weapons systems coming online with a barely audible hum. The group froze collectively as a minicon flyer swooped out with a chirp and circled Ratchet making more vocalizations all the while. The Autobots noted, with concern, that it was impatient and distressed.

"What," Ratchet asked, "Do you want me to follow?"

The minicon clicked in an pleased manner and swooped down the tunnel. Seeing no one was following it gave an impatient buzz. Ratchet started down the tunnel and stopped almost directly under it. With another pleased click the minicon continued and the medic waved for his team to follow.

"Well, the minicon definitely looks similar to Soundwave's chest decoration. Think it is?" Ironhide commented quietly.

"It's entirely possible, but if it is, where's Soundwave, and what happened to him?" Jazz responded, the light behind his visor shifting slightly.

The group continued to follow the minicon and as Will stated to ask a question the group halted as a purple and silver mech stood in their path. The mech had a cannon raised pointed at their chests, but the second he saw Lazerbeak he lowered his cannon and waved for them to follow.

Glancing at each other slowly the Autobots refocused their attention on the mech. He stood about twenty feet tall and his silver face was marked with two red optic bands. They were unsure why he had two, but they got the feeling that if they asked he wouldnt respond so, they stayed silent.

The mech led them through a wall and beyond it was a room filled with stasis pods and several mechs identical to their guide, there was also multiple drones with only one optic band.

But, the room's most noticeable feature was the unconscious and bleeding form of Soundwave. Ratchet frozen before darting to the spy's aide snapping orders at his teammates. The medic halted for a moment and turned to one of the drones after cursing under his breath, "He's going to need Energon. Can you harvest and refine it?"

The drones glanced at each other and nodded before scurrying out. Ratchet returned his attention to the spy and set to work. The Autobots barely noticed the remaining quartet of drones watching over the spy.

{-}

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing.**


	8. Villanous Thoughts

:Cybertron:

Soft light permeated the dark lonely void that is space. This light came from the only surviving piece of Cybertron's once great surface. The metal though warped and rusted was still strong, the only weak points being the tiny hole that let light through.

Within the room a low echoing snarl sounded, "Soon."

{-}

Two massive mechs slowly circled each other. One was red and black with azure blue optics, the other a dark grey with lava-like highlights and ruby red optics. Both mechs were snarling and hissing at the other occasionally interspersed with an elegant yet harsh language no one (who was present) could understand. It didn't really matter that no one could understand though, they could hear the sheer hatred.

The reason for this hatred was they both had the rank of Prime.

The silver Prime, known simply as The Fallen, could only be killed by another Prime, thus the other Prime was a threat and had attacked him as soon as possible.

The red Prime, known as Sentinel, hadn't taken to kindly to The Fallen's surprise attack and the resulting tension had built over the short time the two Primes were in close proximity of each other.

All of said tension was now coming to a head and one of the two would probably be dead or almost dead at the end of their fight.

 _'This',_ Megatron thought, from where he was quietly observing in the corner, _'Will not do. As much as I hate Primes I hate Optimus more. Now to interrupt this disagreement.'_

The Warlord idly raised his arm as his servo curled, and fired off a shot. The blast sailed over the pair startling them and causing them to whirl to face the Warlord. The Fallen instantly began to snarl,"Megatron, what is the meaning of this?"

The disgraced Prime had barely finished his sentence when Megatron strode forward to place himself between the pair and he began to calmly scold the pair, "Enough from the both of you. We have more important matters to attend to. Matters that require both of you to be alive," Megatron narrowed his optics into a glare and his mouth curled up into a snarl as he finished his speaking,"I trust you can put aside your... differences and work together."

The Primes glanced at each other over the warlord's shoulder, before Setinel slowly responded,"I don't see why we cant work together."

The Fallen hissed as his lava like highlights flared,"At least until Optimus is _dead_. After that," The Fallen shrugged carelessly,"We'll see."

Meagtron stepped back glancing between the two, his face carefully blank. The gunmetal mech then nodded and began to speak again,"Understood, now if I'm correct the _package_ is about to arrive, Shall we go se it?"

Sentinel's electric blue optics flashed guardedly, but he nodded and stepped towards the door. The Fallen glared at the other Prime silently but followed after him, as he quietly sulk.

Behind them Megatron gave a sinister grin. His plan was going well, soon there would be nothing standing in his path to ruling over Cybertron and Earth. After all why try and kill three Primes when they can just kill each other.

Right then Megatron's comm. pinged quietly as a message came in from Devastator who was watching the cargo bay. _~Lord Megatron, the package has arrived.~_

Megatron allowed himself a sinister chuckle as he strode forward and addressed the Primes,"Come, _it_ , has arrived."

{-}

As Megatron and an the Primes made their way towards the cargo bay the Decepticon's standing guard eyed the massive metal box that was slowly and carefully being moved to the center of the bay. The plain box was supposedly protecting an ancient stasis pod or something similar.

Above on the bay's observation and command deck was Devastator. The massive green and dark gray mech was watching the precedings with narrowed blood red optics. The tankformer wasn't quite certain what was in the package below but riding concern himself with it. After all, Megatron was his liege, and disappointing the warlord had serious consequences.

Shaking his helm, Devastator spun on his heel and headed towards the door behind to greet his master.

{-}

:Earth, U.S.A, Louisiana:

The Warmouth flicked it's tail from side to side, propelling its self forward as it glanced around the slightly muddy waters of the marsh it made its home in. Seeing no others of its species and no predators the mottled fish angled towards the surface of the marsh, eyes open for insect larva. But, as the Warmouth rose it noted a small group of tiny fish below it swimming through as quickly as possible.

The Warmouth zeroed in the the tiny fish and dove, tail flashing from side to side near silently. The Warmouth's prey abruptly noticed it diving towards them and scattered, but it was to late. The Warmouth swallowed three of the tiny fish whole, and as it turned away the silt beneath it abruptly burst upwards. Seeing as anything _can_ be lethal it moving fast enough the fish was killed by multiple pieces of sand slamming into its body and piercing its scales.

So silt rushing up towards it and a glimmer of silver was the last thing the Warmouth saw.

{-}

Silverscale came online slowly, alerts beeping in his audio sensors. The mech groaned quietly as he waited for his scanners to come online. He was no fool, why risk being discovered after all. As his senses came online they where instantly focused on his surroundings.

The mech blinked black optics slowly as the scan results came back. He was buried in organic muck, underwater, overhead there were eleven or so non-sentient lifeforms. Silverscale shrugged to the best of his ability as he waited of the feeling to returned to his servos and pedes.

Silverscale's faceplate curled up in a smirk as he regained feeling in his left servo. Flexing the body part with ease the silver mech pulled his servo up out the muck, with an enormous amount of force. The silver limped implanted its self outside of the watery tea[ the rest of his body was still stuck in, and gave him leverage to pull himself out. The mech's right servo regained feeling as soon as he started to push up, out of the muck he was buried in. His right servo was immediately planted next his left servo, and the mech pushed up revealing his upper arm which, like the rest of his body, were silver but , were ringed royal blue. The mech continued to push up revealing blue shoulders and the beginnings of a silver torso mark with intricate royal blue scrollwork down his sides. The mech's legs were solid silver as he rose out of the muck. His pedes were royal blue on top as he lifted them out of the sludge.

Silverscale shook out his frame silently as he swept the water with a cold black gaze. The mech paused as he started to activate his comm. unit to contact Thunderbolt.

"I just woke up, there's no way he's awake yet." Silverscale rumbled quietly to himself as he shook his helm. The mech's gaze snapped outward, towards where he instinctively knew Thunderbolt lay. Optics narrowing slightly the silver mech rushed forwards, and transformed with a flurry of metal plates. In a matter of moments the robotic humanoid was replaced by a massive, metallic Sarcosuchus mimic. The mimic smirked to the best of its crocodilian ability and lunged forward tucking powerful legs to its belly and swung its tail from side to side sending the creature curtly forwards.

 _Soon, my master shall rise again_ , Was the only thought on Silverscale's mind as he speed towards his compatriot's resting place.

{-}

 **I own nothing.**


	9. Author's note of Doom

**Alright, now that I have your attention let me make one thing clear. I am not abandoning Developed** **Dimensions. The story is on temporary hiatus, but I'm not done with it. I have not intentions to ever abandon a story, my mindset is if you start something you better see it through to the end, and I will do exactly that.**

 **The current plan is rewrite the story completely using what I have currently as a starting point, but it might take sometime before the rewrite process begins, for one thing I am working on two one-shot plot bunnies that have been pestering me for a while. For another I'm a fairly slow writer in general.**

 **The final thing I have to say today is part of my absence has been caused by the death of my mother, who passed away due to cancer almost eleven weeks ago now.**

 **By the way, I'm not looking for any condolences, there's nothing any of you could do so please don't apologize.**

 **I don't really know how long it will take to write these two one-shots. I'll try and finish them quickly but, I'm a slow writer. I hope to get them both finished by the end of march. Hopefully once those two are finished I'll be able to get a new chapter of Developed Dimensions out within a month.**

 **I hope you all are doing well and have a nice day.**


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